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Saturday, March 1, 2014

Tarlac cops hit for harassing scribe

TARLACCITY – The leadership of the Central Luzon Media Association yesterday lambasted
policemen from the Tarlac Police Provincial Office for allegedly harassing a
publisher of a local newsweekly and barring him entry inside the office of the
provincial police director.

Bonifacio
Dacayanan, publisher of Facts and Figures Newsweekly based in this city, said
the incident took place at around 1 pm last February 26 when he visited the
TPPO headquarters in Barangay San Vicente, Camp Macabulos here to inquire about
the status of a previously arranged appointment with Senior Superintendent Alex
Sintin, newly installed provincial director.

Dacayanan
said two policemen manning the gate of the police camp whom he identified as a
certain Police Officer 1 Bautista and one PO1 Rombaoa asked him for his
concerns.

When he informed
them he was going to meet Sintin, the two lawmen asked him to present his
identification card. After doing so, he said the lawmen gave him clearance to
proceed to the police headquarters.

But a few
moments later, Dacayanan said one of them called him out and stopped him. The
lawman then took his ID and ran towards the headquarters supposedly to show it
to officials at the camp.

He said while
holding him at the camp gate, others who passed the gate, including ordinary
people, were allowed freely inside without being subjected to such
harassment.

After a few
minutes, the lawman returned with the ID and finally allowed him to enter the
camp.

Dacayanan said
prior to the incident, he and Sintin had held initial talks on the possible
coordination between the PNP and the media in Tarlac.

Dacayanan said
it was not the first time he was maltreated by authorities. He said he received
a similar treatment from the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) when he visited
the military headquarters in Barangay San Miguel in CampServillano
Aquino here.

He narrated his
experience during the directorate meeting of the CLMA at a local restaurant here
Friday night.

CLMA
president Tony Vallejo asked Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, regional director of the
Philippine National Police Regional Office 3, to order a full-dress
investigation on the incident to prevent a possible whitewash by the TPPO.

“We
condemn the strongest terms this dastardly treatment of the members of the
fourth estate, particularly our own. They ought to accord respect to media
practitioners. Authorities should do something about it,” Vallejo said. (Manny Galvez)